Earthing: Heal, Help, and Happify

With attacks on our National Parks and respect for diverse human beings as valid members of this earth, it may feel more important than ever to keep connecting to the earth we love, the earth we are made of. It's my life purpose to help us ground in love~ and we can find peace in the storm.

If you can't make it to any of my nature therapy sessions in Lawrence, you could spend 3-10 minutes Earthing where you are, or attend another group coming together to heal, help, and happify.

What is earthing?

Find a patch of earth it's safe to stand on.Take your shoes off.Let your soles sink in.Let your soul sink in. (You don't need to, but can read the science of Earthing in a National Insititute of Health article here.

Here's a snippet that excites me:

Grounding or earthing refers to direct skin contact with the surface of the Earth, such as with bare feet or hands, or with various grounding systems. Subjective reports that walking barefoot on the Earth enhances health and provides feelings of well-being can be found in the literature and practices of diverse cultures from around the world.1 ...Multi-disciplinary research has revealed that electrically conductive contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth (grounding or earthing) produces intriguing effects on physiology and health. Such effects relate to inflammation, immune responses, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases...

Specifically, grounding an organism produces measurable differences in the concentrations of white blood cells, cytokines, and other molecules involved in the inflammatory response...Grounding reduces pain and alters the numbers of circulating neutrophils and lymphocytes, and also affects various circulating chemical factors related to inflammation.

Our main hypothesis is that connecting the body to the Earth enables free electrons from the Earth’s surface to spread over and into the body, where they can have antioxidant effects. Specifically, we suggest that mobile electrons create an antioxidant microenvironment around the injury repair field, slowing or preventing reactive oxygen species (ROS) delivered by the oxidative burst from causing “collateral damage” to healthy tissue, and preventing or reducing the formation of the so-called “inflammatory barricade”. We also hypothesize that electrons from the Earth can prevent or resolve so-called “silent” or “smoldering” inflammation. If verified, these concepts may help us better understand and research the inflammatory response and wound healing, and develop new information on how the immune system functions in health and disease.

Summary of findings (on earthing) to date:

Grounding appears to improve sleep, normalize the day–night cortisol rhythm, reduce pain, reduce stress, shift the autonomic nervous system from sympathetic toward parasympathetic activation, increase heart rate variability, speed wound healing, and reduce blood viscosity.

A summary has been published in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health.4)

More Options to Heal, Help, and Happify...

Opportunities to connect online with soulful nature lovers (in groups I've appreciated) who seek wholeness: Resilient Activist (Kansas City in person & online)

•  Nourish your spirit at our Climate Café Gathering

•  Ready to get your hands dirty and give back to your local community? Join our KC Farm School Work Day on May 3

  
  

EcoNidra Meditations

To celebrate the Earth upon we walk and the Earth within us, here are relaxing and connective invitations that you can watch and do in your own time, in your own nearby nature.

• Earth Day Invitation #1: Connecting with the Earth & Free-writing

• Earth Day Invitation #2: Pilgrimage through your Face & Random Acts of Kindness

• Earth Day Invitation #3: Listening with your whole Body & Deep listening in life

• Earth Day Invitation #4: Sitspot & The Heart-felt Sense of the Present Moment

• Earth Day Invitation #5: Cloud-watching & Journaling

• Earth Day Invitation #6: The Heart-felt Sense of the Present Moment

• Earth Day Invitation #7: David Attenborough Quote & Earth Day Celebration

Kat MertensEcoNIDRA™ Founder, Forest Therapy Guide, Teacher of Presence

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. -Joseph Campbell

A Poem for those who feel called to be alone

in this time of chaos,

those who seek communion in solace,

answers in the quiet:

On Retreat: The Wilderness Experience

I sit at the window 

to a vision beyond the slope of grass

to river and trees, the southern sky

sealed with clouds, lightening.

A crow sounds.

The tangle of daily effort softens. 

An essence, a germ, 

is trying to glow in bone and reath,

beating slow in my blood.

As if a voice is saying quietly,

Stop now. Just stop.

Let yourself sink down 

into your deepest love.

You'll know what to do. 

~Karen Lewis Foley

🌷 I'D LOVE TO INCLUDE ANY OF YOUR QUESTIONS. PLEASE WRITE ME. :)

© Shannon Gorres, 2025. Written by a human, not AI or chatGPT. Please contact me to request permission before sharing. I will give you permission to share sections of it when you include "by Shannon Gorres, www.DivineNatureTherapy.com"